Death ride
by jammyjamfan
Summary: A car chase with a twist. Will prob only be a few chapters. Just an idea. Dunno where it will go.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Rizzoli and Isles, I am only borrowing them for not-for-profit entertainment.

* * *

Jane growls at Frankie the moment she turns the police siren on. She should have been driving but now she can only sit there and pray Frankie doesn't crash and kill them both.

He hasn't had quite as much experience in high speed chases, or in driving full stop. She holds her tongue so she doesn't micromanage him. He is too busy concentrating right now to notice her tight grip on the door and dash and the way her feet move as if she is slamming them into invisible pedals.

Its already showing signs dusk is approaching fast which means more risk. The sooner this idiot stops, intended or otherwise, the better.

Police try to aways asses the risks in the moment. The risk of a perp getting away versus the risk they could cause a crash and harm innocent people. Every situation is different. Every car chase is different.

But this guy is pretty much the only lead in the murder case they are intending to solve.

She knew the moment the glassy eyed, skinny, stressed out kid looked her way that he was gonna run. She should have probably known the moment she opened the workshop door to the undercover car wrecking yard that anyone caught inside would run.

It was a chop shop. Car parts strewn everywhere, likely stolen, no...definitely stolen. Not a single car was whole...except the one they were chasing which was probably stolen too...although not being traced would be the only reason to steal a beat up sports-car.

She should have been focused. She shouldn't make excuses for why she didn't react sooner, move faster, tackle the kid before he ran.

She wasn't in control of the situation and she should have been.

But Maura was saying something while she was scanning the warehouse. Something about a car and oil from the crime scene and matching it to something here...something she saw in that warehouse. Something she instinctively moved towards.

It wasn't like Maura. Maura was smart, observant, careful. But she had just walked in, past Jane, straight towards it, without waiting, without thinking.

_"__Jane, You do need me to come. I can identify if there is any matching evidence."_

_"__Are you saying I can't?"_

_"__No. I am saying I can. I know cars and bikes and I would be able to gather evidence there instead of getting a team in afterwards. I'd already be there. And if you are right on the size of the operation it could take hours to find anything at all..."_

_"__Fine Maura, you can come with us if you stop talking. But you always stay behind me. You always stay where I can see you and do what I say, alright?"_

_"__Of course Jane."_

_"__You promise?"_

_"__I will do whatever you say Jane."_

But Maura suddenly wasn't behind her. Her voice had been behind her, then by her shoulder and then drifted forwards, in front of her, Maura's shoulder brushing Jane's as she passed by. It happened like a dream. It happened but it was too late by the time her consciousness put the voice and the touch and the scene into one image. She had thought maybe it was Frankie moving past her into position. And then Frankie is moving towards Maura telling her to get back in an urgent and loud, yet hushed, tone.

His voice a little deeper than usual. The deep growl seems to echo around her ears and out the corner of her eye she sees Frankie grab Maura around the waist and drag her into a darkish out of the way corner.

Out the corner of her eye the other side she sees movement too. A kid spinning on the spot to look in the direction of the noises. He is in blue coveralls and has grease smeared over his right cheek and his eyes are wide.

Jane keeps her gun mid height and waits to see what he will do.

That's when the kid saw her.

That look in his eyes. Terror. Fear.

And every muscle in his body screamed flight before he even moved.

"Police. We have a warrant. Don't mo-"

The clang of metal tells Jane he dropped whatever tool he was holding. And he is already running. He wouldn't stop. Why would he.

He jumped the hood of one car and ducked behind half a car body of another and raced to the other end of the warehouse. Jane raced after him swerving, dodging, jumping over parts of various cars and engines that block her way. Through the swinging side door and after the lanky skinny speeding sixteen year old. She could hear heavy footsteps behind her and the panting of her slightly heavier younger brother. She might tease him later about how unfit he had gotten after putting on those extra pounds of muscle...and donuts.

The grease smeared kid could run. Really run. He should have been on a track team at school. Probably would have got a full scholarship too.

It only takes a few more minutes to realize the kid is running around the perimeter of the warehouse.

"Keep going," Jane half pants half yells at Frankie as she turns on her heels 180 degrees and heads back in the direction they had just come from. There is no way to know who will make it back first but they double their chances of catching him this way.

Jane is back through the side door and jumping again, almost an exact reverse of earlier. She sees the kid literally slide on rubber soles through the entrance door they originally came in and jump inside that beat up sports-car. The one that isn't in pieces. Jane tries to run faster but the obstacles make it tricky so go any faster.

The kid turns the car over and floors it towards the closed roller doors leaving a stream of smoke floating out the back. The back passenger door that was open closes itself from the momentum. The roller doors explode outwards and shred like an aluminum can as the car hits them without slowing down. And just like that the car is gone. A trail of smoke and the sound of a car roaring into the distance all she can see and hear. Jane makes in through the puckered hole in the roller door at the same time as Frankie slams the drivers door of Janes undercover car. She almost collides with her own car when Frankie brakes to let jump in with him. And Frankie floors it. He drives faster than she thinks he ever drove before. The tail lights get a little brighter and closer and they follow that car through the barbed wire gates and around a dirt road sending dust into the sky. Sirens blaring and tail lights ahead. A call made to highway patrol to lay out spikes just outside the next town and to send extra cars, fire and ambulance. No plates to report. But no plates stands out as clearly as a target might.

The kid that can drive as well as he can run.

So now here they are...roughly ten minutes later and ten miles up the old interstate road, less that 20 miles from the closest out of the way, nearly abandoned, nothing for another 60 miles, town. Thankfully there is nothing closer. Thankfully in the last five minutes they have only seen one other vehicle.

Jane still subconsciously driving while consciously planning how to safely stop this kid.

She wants to question him. So another death and another unanswered puzzle piece is not how she wants this night to end.

And when her phone starts to ring her first instinct is to ignore it as if she was the one driving. Protocol advises against using a cellphone while on a high speed chase but it's Maura, she can tell by the programmed tune, and surely she should let her BFF know why she is standing alone in an empty semi lit warehouse right now. She answers without taking her eyes off the car in front.

"Maura I'm sorry. I'll send a car." She apologizes. It isn't the first time she has abandoned her friend in a strange place and sadly it won't be the last.

It's hard to hear over sirens, crackling radio and the general loudness of wind resistance against a speeding car, but she thinks she hears only rsilence on the other end.

"I'm really sorry Maur-, we are chasing the kid from the warehouse. He took a car and plowed through the side of the building."

_"__I know."_ Maura replies, her voice sounding strained and slightly panicked.

"What's wrong? You find something else in the warehouse?"

The perps car in front veers unnecessarily to the right spraying shingle at Jane's car. Frankie holds steady against the hail of stones and dust. Either the kid got distracted for a second or spraying stones was the intention.

The reply in Jane's ear is a sort of _ooofff_ sound. Much like the sound of someone having air knocked out of them.

Jane grips the side of the car harder.

"Maur?"

She is positive there was no one else in that warehouse. Heck she sprinted the length of it twice. But maybe someone turned up after they left.

"Maura?"

_"__Jane-"_

"What happened?"

The car in front hits a dip in the road and Jane hears the same ooofff noise through the phone.

"No." She breathes mostly to herself. "Where are you Maur. Tell me right now where you are?"

_"__The car. I'm in the sports car."_

"What? How? What?"

"What is it Jane?" Frankie asks loudly over the chaos.

_"__I'm in the trunk. It - oooofff- Jane...this is the car you're looking for."_

"Maura's in there." Jane says pointing at the car they are chasing.

Frankie frowns slowly.

_"__I looked in the car when you took off. There is blood stains in the trunk. Then he came back so I hid."_

"What do we do?" Jane asks out loud.

* * *

to be continued?


	2. Chapter 2

oh no...not car puns. lol. You guys and your comments are totally the best!  
Laughed at the comment line 'retrieve Maura later'. So so funny. :D  
Kicking it up a gear so hang on...this will be a very intense ride.

* * *

CHAPTER 2

"I'm really scared Jane." Maura says trying unsuccessfully to keep fear out of her voice.

There is a clicking on the other end and she thinks it is Jane making thinking noises with her tongue and mouth. She is sure she has given Jane a heck of a lot to deal with right in this moment.

"I'm sorry." Maura whispers softly against the lump of fear in the back of her throat. She holds her breath, she has no idea what's happening around her but it feels like the car is a scary roller coaster. It feels like they are currently breaking the land speed record. She wants to chew on her lip but knows the wrong bump at the wrong time could cause her to physically injure herself. As it is she can already feel bruising on both arms, her right leg and a bump growing on her head. And worse than that, in the dark smelly confines of the truck of the car, she already knows she has contaminated the evidence that was there. But even worse still is that she is in the trunk of a car driven by someone fleeing. But at the time she climbed in there, she thought she had no other choice. In that moment the kid swung the door open and headed straight for her.

Maura can hear Frankie's muffled voice through the receiver, _"Why would she get in the car?"_

* * *

_She had been left sitting on her heels between a pile of bumpers and a rack of hubcaps when Frankie pulled her with him and out of the open. And then he was gone and she could only hear Jane calling out and heavy footprints fading away. _

_She looked around before pulling herself to her feet sure she was completely alone now._

_She hadn't meant to disobey Jane. But that sports car was the make that used the particular type of oil they had found at the crime scene. Also, the tyre tread looked like it might match although she would need to take a mould to confirm. That one dirty white car with the red line down the centre could be the key to solving the case. And it was still in one piece. It was likely next in the cue to be broken down and the chassis number had probably been scratched out long ago. But it wasn't in a hundred parts spread through the building and it wasn't a crushed cube of metal either. _

_What luck they had. _

_Her brain had released the chemicals that commonly relate to the feeling of joy. Or at least she thought that was it._

_Most people get excited about love, a new toy, kids, or sugary treats, but for Maura it had always been the stranger things that caused an uncontrollable reaction inside her._

_Her feet had just moved towards it, like moths to a flame. She wasn't even aware she had moved until Frankie had half tackled her to the ground and she heard Jane yelling at someone behind her._

_And now Frankie and Jane were chasing the suspect and she was standing only a few feet from that same white and red car._

_She glanced over her shoulder, almost looking for an invisible suggestion to go check it out, it was why she had come along so why not. Right._

_She carefully poked her head through the open windows scanning for any clues or evidence. The back door is open but she can see that the back seat is completely empty. She pulls a glove out of her purse slipping it on before she reaches through the drivers window and pulls the lever to open the trunk. It pops open easily with a loud click. _

_She carefully scans the inside of the trunk._

_It looks like it's been cleaned out of everything, except one thing._

_"__Reddish brown stain" She tells herself out loud releasing a heavy breath._

_This was it. This had to be the car that had been at the crime scene. She would never say it out loud to anyone but she knew it inside._

_"This must be the gut thing Jane talks about._

_She is startled by a loud hollow metallic bang of a door swinging open against the wall. Her head whips up towards the rear end of the building and she can just make out wild curls bouncing around in the dim lighting._

_Then another bang in the opposite direction causing her to look towards it._

_A young boy in blue coveralls is sprinting in her direction like his life depends on it. Maura ducks down behind the back of the car pulling the trunk down a little to hide herself peeking between the gap between the hinges in his direction._

_He looks about fifteen or sixteen and is wide eyed and frantic as he glances in the direction of Jane. Maura looks where he looks and see's Jane is concertrating and her face taunt and grim. She pushes off her foot to leap over a truck jack landing firmly and glaring ahead, her eyes still on the boy. He is still running as well, right in Maura's direction and she can feel her heart start to race, pumping blood to her ears and her palms become instantly moist. In less than a minute he will see her and she does something quite rare, she panics. She raises the trunk up and climbs inside rolling into a cramped ball and lowering the trunk door behind her leaving it open a few inches. Her fingers on the outside to not letting it latch. She can smell the aroma of dried blood and holds her breath to block the smell and calm the pounding in her ears at the same time. It doesn't work on both counts._

_She hears a car door open and the car rocks to the right. The door slams and she can feel the engine come to life, the floor of the car vibrating like a freight train._

_A silent 'no' leaves her lips and she pulls herself up to quickly climb out. Inside this car is the last place on earth she wants to be. Her head is out and she ties to wave at Jane to get her attention. The car jumps forward almost throwing her out onto the ground, but her legs keep her inside. The car crunches into the roller door and there is the tiniest break in forward momentum throwing an unbalanced Maura backwards and her head collides with the open trunk door sliding down onto her back in a crumpled shocked heap. _

_She had let go of the metal to put her hand to her head to try to stifle the pain and possibly to stop any bleeding._

_The unmistakable click of the trunk locking into the closed position causes her to freeze._

_She swears loudly._

_The car makes a sharp turn and she is forced to brace herself. A small bump throws her into the air and she lands heavily. And the next larger bump and she is left lying on her back wondering if she just bit her lip and unsure of which way is up._

_It's dark except for a few glimmers of dim light around the joins near the taillights._

_She takes a minute to catch her breath hoping the rest of the ride is calmer, but the car swerves again so she stays put a bit longer._

_The next bump and she feels something hit her in the leg. She wiggles around in a contorted way until she can reach down beside her leg and grab the object, knowing its her handbag just by the feel and shape of it._

_She rummages around in her bag for her phone while using her legs to brace herself enough that she isn't thrown around like a piñata._

_The screen glows at her blindingly and when her eyes adjust she is holding it upside down._

_She turns it around and deftly swipes and taps until she finds Jane's contact. About to press call they hit another bump and she drops the phone beside her and has to roll to retrieve it. It's bright white glow making it easy to find._

_Deep Breath. Tap the call button. Hold to ear._

_Such simple things to do take a little more skill when everything around her is bouncing and moving._

_"__Maura I'm sorry. I'll send a car." Jane's calm gruff voice a relief from reality and she tries to reply but throat closes up and burning tears spring into her eyes. _

_She takes a deep breath wondering how she will tell Jane what situation she has got herself into._

_"__I'm really sorry Maur-, we are chasing the kid from the warehouse. He took a car and plowed through the side of the building."_

_"__I know." She replies touching the bump on her head in memory. _

_"__What's wrong? You find something else in the warehouse?"_

_Jane sounds as panicked as she feels. She goes to speak when the ground moves under her and her shoulder is slammed into the back side of the car crushing her lungs slightly and the phone slips out of her hand again._

_"__Maur?" She can hear Jane's voice and reaches towards the sound to collect her phone again._

_"__Maura?" Louder and raspy with panic_

_She pulls it to her ear quickly, "Jane-"_

_"__What happened?" _

_"__I..." she begins to speak but the ground below her seems to drop away and then picks her back up heavily like someone struck her in the back and the back of her head. She can feel a headache coming on from the jolts to her neck. She is starting to feel frustrated on top of the pain because she desperately wants to tell Jane everything but this ride is making it difficult. Tears prickle at her eyes again this time a hint of self-pity._

_"__Where are you Maur. Tell me right now where you are?"_

_She has not heard Jane sound so panicked before and the dangerous inflictions on the words 'right now', like a parent about to scold a child._

_She pushes her arm against the side of the car to pin herself hoping she can get a sentence out, "The car. I'm in the sports car."_

_Muffled sounds in response sound like, What and How._

_While she can still speak she continues, "I'm in the trunk. It -" another bump and her face collides with the phone and her arm, she tightens her grip ignoring any pain. "..this is the car you're looking for."_

_There is silence on the other end. A long silence._

_"__I'm really scared Jane." She whispers._

* * *

_"__Pull back."_ She can hear Jane demand Frankie. _"Don't loose him but pull back."_

In that moment Maura is aware that Jane knows exactly where she is. She isn't trapped in the trunk of a speeding vehicle out in the middle of nowhere with only the driver knowing where they are. Momentary relief floods her, because if she had to tell Jane what direction they had travelled and for how long she wouldn't be able to. Over the noise and jolting there was no way she could know that a car was following behind. For all she knew Jane was looking around in the warehouse.

It takes a few minutes before she can feel the vibrations beneath her seem slightly less erratic.

_"__Hold on Maura"_ Jane commands softly and Maura takes the time to just slowly breathe. It's still dark. She still doesn't know what's going to happen. She is still terrified.

But.

Jane knows where she is.

She might have just smiled a little bit. Until the next bump reminds her that relaxing isn't an option right now.

She can hear Jane talking loudly, maybe angrily but can't make out what is being said. There is pauses of static radio that fill the spaces between Jane's deep growls. The sound of her friend feeling so close feels good though.

It could have been seconds or minutes she lay completely still, the car under her still rolling and shaking, the darkness still engulfing her, but what else could she do except wait.

"_Maura?" _Jane calls loudly, a hint of desperation in her voice.

Maura shifts the phone closer to her ear, feeling the calmest she has felt since the trunk locked on her, enjoying the heat of the phone against her cold face, "Yeah Jane."

_"__Maura. Brace yourself." _

Maura's eyes snap open, her lip quivers and her chest tightens, "Uh...why Jane?"

There is no reply. There is no way she can brace herself fully while holding the phone either. She doesn't want to let it go. What if it smashes. What if she is alone again. What if she is trapped alone in the dark.

Claustrophobia. The word springs into her mind and she shakes it away. Not the time. She just has to hold on.

Brace herself for something.

She drops the phone beside her and plants her feet against the side and end of the car using her knee to lock her lower half in place. One arm over her head and the other arm against the side and she tucks her head downwards. Medium force in four directions. If the impact is bad enough she could break a lot of bones holding herself firmly like this.

She closes her eyes tightly although it makes no difference at all to what she can see.

And she takes in a breath and tries to hold it.

And for the longest few seconds she waits. That constant roar of the engine still surrounding her.

The bang is like a gunshot and is loud enough to deafen her and she can feel the tires rock upwards and they, along with her stomach, seem to levitate midair, or perhaps she is the one levitating. Floating.

The silence is unbearable in contrast to the loud hum she had grown accustomed too. Her heart seems to pause mid-beat and move into her stomach quickly. Her breath catches in her throat. Her hair tickles her face all over like it is caressing her, forehead to chin and back again. She opens her eyes to try to understand what's happening. She can see her hair drifting around her face like gravity doesn't exist. Her phone is sliding past her hand, the glow unmistakable. Then it drops towards her shoulder and slides facedown towards her feet before moving back up towards her face.

She frowns gently, her brain unable to make sense.

Her ears try to make out any sound but there is nothing except the buzz that happened with the bang.

Something inside her suggests that she is floating or flying and perhaps she should just let go.

Just as she contemplates this as an option, something slams heavily into her body or her body into it, knocking the wind right out of her. Her neck feels only pain. And then that weightlessness again.

Her phone spins end over end past her face, she can tell the screen is shattered. She can see the white glow, duller now, and a round shatter mark across the whole top half.

It feels like everything is in slowmotion as her hair moves from around her neck gently to in front of her face. She can feel it's gentle touch as it caresses softly past. A drop of fresh blood catches her eye as it seems to move away from her spinning midair stopping as it touches the fabric inside the car and sticking where it landed. She wonders momentarily where it came from.

Then she is dropping, stomach in her throat, her hair rotating quickly the other way again. Another body slam, perhaps not as hard, but her hand and arm slips out of its spot, her brace broken.

Her whole body, now loose, free, pulled toward the empty side of the trunk, face first.

Her face makes the first contact and she is plunged into blackness.

* * *

...to be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

THE FINAL CHAPTER

* * *

_"__I'm really scared Jane." Maura whispers._

Had Jane heard Maura she would have responded 'Don't be scared Maura. It's gonna be fine.'

Sure it would have been a lie. A complete lie. Sure it wouldn't have been helpful. And Maura wouldn't have believed her anyway. Jane was scared too. More scared than she had been in a very long time.

But Jane didn't hear her. The phone was abandoned on her lap as she had flipped off the siren and began screaming into the radio.

At the same time as Maura had said 'I'm really scared". Jane had seen the red and blue flashing lights on the horizon. Eight sets of police lights came into view like a fog of blackness had lifted. She knew that the spikes couldn't be far away. She knew sppeding blown tires could very well injure passengers. Especially ones not belted in.

She had no plan except the one already in progress...the one that was set-up before she was aware that Maura was trapped in the trunk. The plan set before it could possibly hurt her best friend. A plan she needed to alter.

If there was time.

"Pull in the spikes. Hostage in car. Let it pass through." She screams into the radio, her voice sounding like an terrified child on the verge of tears.

Frankie turns to look at Jane who shrugs as a reply. She had already decided that any other explanation would take far too long.

"Should I speed up and try push him off the road?" Frankie offers knowing there is little else he can do but follow.

Jane chews her lip. She wants to scream.

A life-changing split second decision was in her hands. She wonders if she was the one driving if she automatically do what Frankie had just suggested. She probably would. She would act on instinct...the instinct to get to Maura. To do something. She would speed up and try push him off the dirt road into the dusty desert and away from the cop cars, road spikes and guns in the hope that he would not crash but just stop. But it's quite dark out and who knows what a speeding car would hit on the side of the road, a ditch, a fence, a shed, a post. Plus the kid might speed up to loose anyone pursuing. She wonders what is going through his mind right now, in this moment. What he thought when he saw all the cars ahead with flashing lights yet is running from only one car behind him. She wonders what his plan is, or was. She wonders if he has already decided there is no hope of fleeing and would just as easily take out as much in his way as he could.  
Was is a suicide chase.

"Jane?" Frankie pulls her back to the present.

"No. Too dangerous. No time."

The radio crackles with a deep male voice. _"We see you coming now. __There isn't time.__"_

The police lights are getting bigger and brighter and closer and all far to fast.

"Get off the road and out of the way." Her second command into the radio as hoarse as the first but more controlled.

_"__Roger."_

Jane clenches her teeth, she can feel the car vibrate between the loud beats of her racing heart.

"We are running out of road." Frankie informs her.

There is no more time. She can see a few of the cars ahead moving away. She can see the silhouettes of men running about.

Jane picks the phone up off her lap, "Maura?" Jane calls loudly.

She wishes there were more time. Time to say a thousand things. A million things.

Time to ask Maura all those questions she never did. Time to tell Maura how wonderful she is. How much their friendship means. Time to say goodbye...just in case.

But she only has time to say one thing.

"Maura. Brace yourself."

She can just now make out the glint of metal still covering the road about 20 meters in front of the few remaining cars.

"Stop Frankie" Jane says with so little emotion she might as well have been ordering a coffee. Frankie brakes hard enough that the back tires swerve left and then right leaving two black lines in their wake and the smell of burned rubber.

Jane stops breathing.

The white sports car travels another twenty meters before it hits the strip at speed and smoke bursts out of the rear tires with an explosive boom that appears to lift the tail of the car off the ground for a second.

Jane feels like her body is paralyzed as she watches the car in slow motion as it starts to veer off the road looking dangerously like it might roll just missing a highway cop car.

Jane is trying to get out of the car before it's fully stopped, it's Frankie that clutches the back of her jacket until the wheels fully stop moving and it's safe.

Jane watches motionless as it tries to travel sideways and into a ditch. The force on the wheels as they are suddenly sucked underneath the car which begins to roll and clips the uphill of the ditch.

It begins to flip. The flip is airborne. Slow motion.

Jane closes her eyes.

After a full mid-air turn it lands back on the tires which take most of the impact. If it hadn't been going so fast it might have just bounced a bit but stayed on all four tires as if nothing had happened except for the crumpled frame, lack of side-mirrors and significantly flatter top, or perhaps it would have rolled to the side then flopped onto the top. But it doesn't stop, it bounces again and enters it's second airborne roll, not as large as the first. And over again it flips, glass being thrown into the air.

"I've killed her."

She thinks it might be over and opens her eyes only to see it land, heavily, completely upright, the trunk flying open with force and the whole thing surrounded by cloud of dust that seems to refuse to settle.

And Jane is running, she can see the lights despite the dusty haze. She runs like her life depends on it. Her legs are burning but she ignores it.

She sees the first highway patrol car pulls up at the wreckage just ahead of her. His headlights showing white billowing smoke coming out from the engine through the mangled bonnet and from the underside of the car. The single lights exposing the endless scratches and dints on the metal of the car body.

Jane swallows, it looks bad. It was like those NASCAR crashes, only those people are in special seatbelts and padded cages wearing helmets and special clothing.

Jane holds back the panic that threatens to drop her to her knees and lay down in the dirt and never get up again.

The first cop on the scene sprints towards the sports car but stops a few meters from it like he is unsure of what to do, or perhaps there is nothing that can be done.

The chances of Maura being ok is pretty slim and Jane prepares herself internally for the worst.

Instead, she reaches him and shoves him out of her way, and in two steps she is at the open trunk.

It's dark in the enclosed space before her and she automatically reaches inside groping for her friend. She finds an arm first, a cold hand.

The rest of the cop cars arrive, their lights on full as they surround the wreckage. Enough light that Jane can now see the side of Maura's face. She isn't moving. Her eyes are closed. Her hair is messy and everywhere.

The lighting makes her skin look pure white, worse so against the stark crimson blood running from her slightly unaligned nose. Her lip is swollen and bleeding as well. One cheek is a pale pink and blotchy.

But her skull isn't shattered.

She is easily recognisable.

More light and the entire inside of the trunk is alight. Maura looks like a raggedy doll chucked into the corner, one arm strewn over her head and bending the wrong way below the wrist, the other underneath her somewhere, and legs crumpled underneath her as well.

"Oh God." Jane pleads climbing inside the open trunk to get closer.

She half lies down beside Maura her face as close as she can manage wanting nothing more than to pull the lifeless body onto her lap and just hug away any brokenness or hurt. But she doesn't want to do more damage so she whispers, "Maura. Maura can you hear me?"

There is no movement, no sign of life.

"Maur?" Her voice so broken it doesn't resemble a word, "I'm sorry."

She reaches across the short distance and tentatively touches the pale cheek. No response. Next she pulls the bloody collar away from Maura's neck popping off the top button, presses two fingers to the neck and tries to find a pulse, she is shaking and her own heartbeat is pounding so heavily she isn't sure she will be able to distinguish hers from Maura's. She moves her location a few times but can't be sure she is feeling anything except panic.

She tries to calm herself. To focus. She can't remember her training right now.

She can hear voices around her but blocks them all out.

Maura would know what to do, Maura shines in moments like these. The best she can do is an impressive tackle and figuring out clues.

"Help me." She pleads Maura as she reaches her hand to Maura's forehead, gently pushing the tangled mess of blonde hair away from Maura's face.

"I don't want to loose you. Please wake up."

Jane presses her head to Maura's chest trying to feel if her lungs are filling with air, if her heart is pumping blood through her body.

She thinks maybe there is movement but if its there its weak.

"You're my best friend. I love you Maura. Don't die on me please"

Jane uses her fingertips to caress her forehead and then her cheek careful to avoid the cuts and bruises along the way, past her ear, to the chin.

Tears sting at her eyes and she silently wills it to just be a really bad dream.

One distant muffled voice begins to breaks through her bubble with some effort.

"...-aaaane. -jjjjaannnnneeee." It's Frankie and suddenly his voice is right above her and clear. "Jane. Is Maura ok?"

Jane doesn't look at him but keeps her eyes fixed on Maura's peaceful pale unmoving face, "She looks asleep. Doesn't she Frankie?"

"What?" Frankie frowns as he looks at Jane who is studying Maura's face with a strange hint of a smile on her lips. He can't understand her relaxed reaction and hopes its not a psychological breakdown.

"She looks so peaceful. She looks like she is sleeping." Jane says as she brushes the back of her hand across Maura's cheek.

"Is she breathing Jane?" Frankie asks sternly trying to hold back anger or panic himself.

A small part of Jane's mind is pulled back into reality, she blinks slowly and gently puts her knuckles against Maura's lips, feeling for the tingle of air on her skin, for breath, for life.

It's faint and slow but it's there.

"Yeah. Yes. She is breathing."

"Thank God. The ambulance is on it's way."

Her hand slips down to Maura's neck and she searches for a pulse again. She feels the faintest beat, then another, and another, a steady pulse, and she sighs in relief. She can feel it now. Her own panic had dissipated away sometime ago and she hadn't noticed.

She leans forward and places a kiss on Maura's forehead, overwhelmed with gratitude, and then she rests her forehead against Maura's to wait, "She always looks like that when she is sleeping."

Frankie raises an eyebrow then frowns.

"Do you watch her sleep Jane?"

"Yeah." Jane replies softly to herself, thinking she is alone and not even aware she is having this conversation outside her own mind.

Frankie clears his throat and Jane snaps back completely to the present with a frown and pulling back.

"I mean no...of course not. Cause that would be weird. Where is the ambulance?"

* * *

It's at the hospital Jane learns that the kid survived as well. He is in a worse state than Maura and as soon as he is stable will have to undergo surgeries, but he should pull through.

At the time the car flipped Jane thought that it could not have gone any worse that it did. But sitting beside Maura's bed she knows it isn't as bad as it could have been.

Two surprisingly fortunate people really.

Maura still looks pale but perhaps its the nasty fluorite lighting. She holds Maura's hand delicately, occasionally and mindlessly stroking warm skin with the pad of her thumb. The other arm is in a cast that Jane has already scribbled on. She has written.

'Rules :- Stay where I can see you, do what I say, and never get in a strangers car. Love Jane'

"Jane?" Frankie calls from the doorway.

Jane turns to him with a soft grateful smile, the same one that she's had on her face since the doctor told her that Maura was stable.

"How is she doing sis?"

"She is good. The doctor says she should wake up soon."

"She is going to be pissed when she does. The medics didn't even try to save her clothing."

Jane chuckles softly, "I think her shoes survived though."

"My shoes..." A weak soft voice comes from the bed.

"Heeey Maura." Jane whispers giving full focus to her friend, "Stay still ok. You're in hospital." Jane gives the hand in hers a squeeze.

Maura's peeks through closed eye's but doesn't attempt to open them fully.

"Hi Maura." Frankie calls softly from the doorway before leaving to give them space.

"Hi." Maura says before pausing, "What, what happened Jane?"

Jane clears her throat, "You were in a car that crashed, but you are going to be just fine."

"I don't feel very fine at all." Maura says with a slightly painful wince upon moving her arm.

"You have a distant radical fracture so don't go swinging your arm around for a bit. And a hairline fracture to your nose bone. I let the doctor fix that for you. Oh...and a whole lot of bruising...kinda... well...all over...literally everywhere. You are pretty multi-colored right now so you will be quite sore for a bit."

Maura opens her eyes cautiously, blinking a few times at the dull light coming through the windows, which feels much brighter than it really is, "Distal radius fracture." She turns her head to look at Jane, "Nasal bone."

"And contusions. I know."

"Is it morning?"

"It is afternoon." Jane says with a smile, glad that Maura's brain seems unharmed after having a head injury.

"And my shoes?"

Jane's face morphs into a cheeky grin, "They are being held in lockup as punishment for breaking the rules. You'll get them back when you behave."

Maura's mouth drops open slightly in surprise but her eyes sparkle a little.

"I've written them all on your cast so you have no excuses from now on."

Maura gives her cast a quick glance, lines of black writing and nothing else, and nothing from anyone else, "What about a 'get well soon' or something polite?"

Jane shakes her head amused, "Get well soon, Maura."

Maura smiles and closes her eyes again, "I don't remember very much."

Jane watches in silence, the chest rising and falling, the occasional movement under the eyelids, the subtle flaring of nostrils. All signs of life.

"I think you were talking to me."

"I was." Jane says leaning forward and brushing her fingers through Maura's hair hoping to help Maura relax.

Maura looks to be enjoying the contact and her breathing slows and she lets out a soft sigh, "I feel sleepy."

"Then sleep." Jane replies softly continuing her gentle caresses.

Maura squeezes Janes hand as she starts to drift into a peaceful slumber, "Jane. Are you going to watch me sleep?"

Jane swallows heavily before responding, "Maura, I'm not letting you out of my sight for sometime. I hope that's ok?"

And Maura smiles.

* * *

END

* * *

I hope it's ok. I think you're all turning me into a sucker for a happy ending...darn it.  
Not sure it's my best work. Sometimes the initial idea doesn't really have as much traction towards an ending as I would like. After chapter 2 I had nothing.  
I did debate just leaving it at two chapters with 'never knowing' being the end...but I know you all would not have allowed that.

Free free to lemmie know what you think :)


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